Orange and Blue

Another photo from Aalborg Carnival that I like to present today is called Orange and Blue. The position of the dancer is more out of the center creating a more dynamic composition. What makes the photo interesting in my eyes is the contrast between the warm orange background and the cold blue dress of the dancer. The light is a pure ambient as in the photo below. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 70mm, F5.6 @ 1/400, ISO 500.

Screem for Joy

Today I am posting my favourite photo from Aalborg Carnival and the battle of carnival bands. The show took place in an open stage which was lit by excellent tungsten light spots, so there was no need for any flash. I really like the energy in the photo which shows how the dancers of the Vimoroz group enjoy their show. What adds to the photo is the background, which is evenly populated with relevant objects related to the show with the light spots at the top of the frame. I love this image. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 70mm, F5.6 @ 1/500, ISO 400.

Carnival Beuaty

I took this photo during the Aalborg Carnival and I decided to post it today. First of all, the dancer is very pretty but there are a few other elements that make this photo to pop up for me. The composition follows the golden rule of third and she is presented on the light background and the negative space on the right is darker which adds some balance to the scene. The dancer's face is in almost a perfect classical 2/3 view (she is photographed so often so I guess that she knows how to pose without any thinking :-) and my on-camera fill-in flash is used to add some catch-lights to her eyes. Because I was close to her at the telephoto end of my lens, F5.6 was enough to provide a pleasing blur of the background. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 159mm, F5.6 @ 1/500, ISO 400.

Carnival Parade

As promised here comes another photo from the carnival parade in Aalborg this year. What I like on this photo is the expression and engagement of the dancer as well as the composition. When I photograph such events I always try to hide the surrounding buildings, street signs etc. This time I used the opportunity that the outfit of the dancer covered the whole frame in my camera. I simply don't like the corners on my photos to be empty ... Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 70mm, F5.6 @ 1/500, ISO 400.

A Guitar Hero

Yes, there was again the great Aalborg Carnival this weekend and I have plenty of photos that I have to edit at some point ... Today let me just post one of them from a concert of the group called Superstition that took place on Saturday afternoon. There was still lots of natural light and this mixed with strong tungsten spots added a nice warm tone to the guitarist, contrasting nicely with the somewhat cooler tones at the huge LCD background. This is essentially how the shot came out of the camera. There was no flash used and the trick was really the composition and timing. I was waiting for the rotating background screen to show the player in order to use the repetition. That had to synchronize with a good expression of the guitarist. During one song I was able to get about 4-5 great shots and this was one of the best. Hope you will like it too. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 91mm, F5.6 @ 1/640, ISO 400.

Dancers in the Parade

Let me present another photo from the last weekend's street parade in Aalborg downtown. I like the movement in the photo and the engagement of the dances. It was a great show and a pleasure to watch. Let's see what the main carnival and the battle of carnival bands will look like in May! Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 98mm, F4 @ 1/640, ISO 400.

Parade and Drums

Here is a photo I took during the parade at Aalborg last week. I like the dedication and engagement of the drum players; it is literally impossible to take an uninteresting photo of them. The overcast day of the parade was perfect for shooting, so I didn't have to use my on-camera flash for fill. The only limitation was the focusing of my Canon 5D mark ii. Normally, I am not that much into action photography so I never complained about it, but on this parade I could feel the limitations. Maybe I need to get the new 1D mark iv :-) Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 140mm, F4 @ 1/640, ISO 400.

Carrus Navalis 2010

YouTube version:



Vimeo version:


I visited the downtown of Aalborg today to watch a street parade called Carrus Navalis. Apart from taking photos, I decided to test the video capabilities of my Canon 5D mark ii. Unfortunately, I didn't have any external microphone, so the sound quality is rather poor. The footage is ok for the first try, however, the video quality after the encoding degraded little bit but I think that it is acceptable. Unfortunately, when watching on Vimeo in HD, the video is jerky from time to time. So I used also YouTube to see if there is any difference and it seems that it plays smoother via YouTube on my computer. I would appreciate if you could leave a comment on this blog and let me know whether YouTube and Vimeo played smoothly on your computer in full screen and whether you saw any difference in quality. Thanks! On Vimeo, be sure to watch it in HD (possible only from the Vimeo page). Enjoy! Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L USM, build-in microphone, hand-held.

Bye, bye

Well, after presenting a few photos from the carnival, let me close this topic for a while with this detail photo. I like the expression in her eyes and the small catch lights created by the on-camera flash used as a fill in. I have also finished scanning some older films on which I captured my trip to India in 2001 and they came out quite nice. I will present a few of them in my next posts, so check out my blog soon again! Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon 28-105 F3.5-4.5 USM at 83mm F7.1 @ 1/160, ISO 200.

Brazil, Brazil, ...

Indeed, you can see Brazilian samba danced in the streets of Aalborg once every year. I particularly like this photo because of the expression in the dancers face and the nice colors. As usual, I used an on-camera flash to soften the shadows. In these situations I normally put the flash compensation to -1 EV or more to make the flash "invisible". Too much flash would destroy the picture. I believe that I used the Lumiquest Mini Softbox as mentioned in the previous posts. Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon 28-105 3,5-4,5 USM at 43mm, F5,6 @ 1/250, ISO 400.

Carnival Parade

Here it comes, the carnival parade! Beautiful colors, happy people, loud drum music and lots of dance ... enjoy. Again, a little bit of on-camera flash was used to fill in. Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon 28-105 F3.5-4.5 USM at 43mm, F7.1 @ 1/250, ISO 200.

Out of the Blue

I could not resist to post another photo similar to the previous one. I like the drama expressed in the picture and the nice colors dominated by the blue sky at the background. I used my on camera flash, probably with the Lumiquest Mini-Softbox, to fill in the shadows. The leading lines on both sides of the photo really help to guide the attention to the main subject. Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon 24-105 4L at 24mm, F16 @ 1/250, ISO 400.

Aalborg Carnival

Let's post some photos from Aalborg Carnival today. The carnival takes place every year in May and it is an exciting event (if you ever travel around, make sure you don't miss it). I chose to start with this picture, while not a typical carnival photo, as it shows a nice atmosphere and is compositionaly pleasing. Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon 24-105 4L at 24mm, F7.1 @ 1/250, ISO 400.